R. Wayne Johnson v. Jana Harrison and Laronna Peeples

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 28, 2013
Docket10-11-00032-CV
StatusPublished

This text of R. Wayne Johnson v. Jana Harrison and Laronna Peeples (R. Wayne Johnson v. Jana Harrison and Laronna Peeples) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
R. Wayne Johnson v. Jana Harrison and Laronna Peeples, (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

IN THE TENTH COURT OF APPEALS

No. 10-11-00032-CV

R. WAYNE JOHNSON, Appellant v.

JANA HARRISON AND LARONNA PEEPLES, Appellee

From the 40th District Court Ellis County, Texas Trial Court No. 81703

OPINION

R. Wayne Johnson, a prison inmate housed in the Clements Unit in Amarillo,

Texas, has been in prison for some time now. He was convicted for “aggravated rape”

and sentenced in 1978 to 99 years in prison.

R. WAYNE JOHNSON AS A VEXATIOUS LITIGANT

This opinion documents that the current Chapters 11 and 14 of the Texas Civil

Practice and Remedies Code have not been effective at curbing abusive litigation by

some inmates. HISTORY WITH THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS

Johnson filed his first application for writ of habeas corpus with the Court of

Criminal Appeals in 1983. He has since filed at least 23 more proceedings, either

applications for writ of habeas corpus or petitions for writ of mandamus, with the Court

of Criminal Appeals, the last one being filed in June of 2012. All were summarily

denied or dismissed. (See Appendix 1 attached).

HISTORY WITH CIVIL COURTS

Johnson has been even more prolific in the civil litigation arena. We have

documented 108 proceedings, appeals, and petitions for writ of mandamus, in the

various Courts of Appeal with most of them falling to the Seventh Court of Appeals in

Amarillo for disposition. (See Appendix 2 attached). The proceedings in the appellate

courts first appeared in 1989. We have made no effort to determine the number of trial

court proceedings involving Johnson. Likewise, we have not attempted to document

the proceedings Johnson may have filed in any Federal Court.

By June 14, 2001, as a result of his civil litigation proceedings, the 156th District

Court in Bee County found Johnson to be a “vexatious litigant”1 as provided for in

Chapter 11 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. The trial court judge also rendered

an order pursuant to section 11.101 prohibiting Johnson from initiating litigation in any

Texas court without obtaining permission of "a local administrative judge." See TEX.

CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE ANN. § 11.101 (West Supp. 2012). This is commonly called a

1 Johnson appears on the vexatious-litigant list (http://www.txcourts.gov/oca/vexatiouslitigants.asp) maintained by the Office of Court Administration. Johnson v. Harrison Page 2 “prefiling” order. This action did not stop Johnson from filing frivolous proceedings.

By October 5, 2012, the Texarkana Court of Appeals documented 13 appellate court

proceedings since 2004 in which the courts of appeals have dealt with Johnson just in

his capacity as a vexatious litigant. Johnson v. Hughey, No. 06-12-00079-CV, 2012 Tex.

App. LEXIS 8406, *1 fn2 (Tex. App.—Texarkana Oct. 6, 2012, no pet.) (mem. op.).

It would be logical to assume that after filing as many civil proceedings as

Johnson has, Johnson would understand more about the litigation process and be more

capable of pursuing a case through the judicial system and obtain a decision on its

merits. However, based on a study of his history in state appellate courts, Johnson

starts a case but is seldom able to keep it from being dismissed. His mandamus

proceedings are routinely summarily denied without an opinion on the merits and

without the court wherein it is filed even requesting a response. TEX. R. APP. P. 52.4;

52.8(d). Despite the extent and frequency of filing claims, he has not learned what it

takes to prove a claim or what is necessary to obtain relief by mandamus. He starts a

lot, but frequently is stopped due to a procedural failure of his own making. All his

litigation has achieved is the harassment of those he sues and the court employees and

judges who must deal with him. His methods do nothing but consume judicial

resources and the resources of Johnson’s target litigant du jure. Only if that is the

intended goal would a person start so many proceedings but yet never give them the

attention needed to see them through to a proper finish.

Thus, the only explanation, other than Johnson is incapable of learning from his

Johnson v. Harrison Page 3 prior mistakes that resulted in his proceedings being dismissed, is that Johnson

understands exactly what he is doing. That is the only rational explanation for what he

does. It appears his objective is to use the judicial system to harass others. It is for that

reason we have undertaken this effort to document his abuse of the judicial system and

to award the current target of his harassment whatever relief we can, and impose such

other sanctions as we think may inhibit him, and other inmates, from using similar

tactics in the future. It is inmates like Johnson that make it where other inmates with

legitimate complaints may get lost in the system because the judicial system sees so

many frivolous claims by vexatious litigants coming from inmates in our penal system.

OUR DIRECT ENCOUNTER

In this current proceeding pending in our Court, R. Wayne Johnson’s civil suit

against Jana Harrison and Laronna Peeples was dismissed after Johnson, within ten

days, did not obtain permission from the local administrative judge to file the suit.

Johnson appeals.

The Trial Court Proceeding

Johnson filed suit in Ellis County against Jana Harrison2 for allegedly violating

Johnson’s right to free speech. In the same proceeding, he sued Laronna Peeples, a

Collin County deputy district clerk, for refusing to file a prior suit against Harrison.

Collin County, on behalf of Peeples, filed a notice with the trial court clerk, bringing the

2 From the record, it appears that Harrison was served but did not answer the suit. The dismissal of the suit dismissed Johnson’s claims against Harrison. Our judgment of dismissal also dismisses Johnson’s appeal against Harrison. Because Peeples is the one who moved to dismiss the trial court proceeding and to dismiss the appeal and sought sanctions, the remainder of this opinion will only address Peeples.

Johnson v. Harrison Page 4 trial court’s attention to the fact that Johnson is a vexatious litigant and is subject to a

prefiling order. Rather than immediately dismiss the suit, the trial court ordered

Johnson’s suit stayed and ordered that unless Johnson obtained permission from the

local administrative judge to file the suit within 10 days the suit would be dismissed.

See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE §§ 11.102; 11.103(b) (West Supp. 2012). Rather than

even try to properly obtain permission to file suit, Johnson tendered for filing a

document titled, “Plaintiff’s Verified Motion to Strike Criminal-Frivolous Pleadings, For

Sanctions – And Constitutional Objections Per Rule 33.1.” Because Johnson failed to

obtain permission to file the proceeding within 10 days of the trial court’s earlier order,

the trial court then dismissed Johnson’s suit.

The Appellate Court Proceeding

Johnson filed his notice of appeal with the district clerk. We received a copy of

the notice of appeal from the Ellis County District Clerk when the record was filed.

Johnson’s brief was filed on March 16, 2011.3 Peeples’ brief was filed on April 13, 2011.

A reply brief was filed on April 21, 2011. In May of 2011, Johnson began filing motions

which were very difficult for the Court to understand. And although the motions were

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